From the Safety Dept

H/T SondraK

I had some things I wanted to say about all this - but as I was turning it over in my mind backing out of a parking space at Mart of Wall, I heard some honking. Turns out a guy in a minivan had started backing out when I did, and I did not see him. Were it me, I'd have gone forward and let the clueless so and so (namely, moi) go on, but he sat there and honked at me instead. At any rate, I figured I was pretty wound up about the issue (if I couldn't pay attention driving), and after some reflection I decided I was unable to say anything that wasn't inflammatory, plus I was taking a position that is hard for me to defend.

My issue is with the Islamic religion, and our society's continual treatment of it's adherents with kid gloves. Don't wanna hurt their feelings. Meanwhile, the more radical members of said religion are plotting our demise. Yep, Christians haven't always been model citizens, either, but for the most part, sanctioned genocide by Christians was several centuries ago, not three days ago. So, can it with the moral equivalence arguments. Not all terrorists are Islamic, either - one in particular was a gun totin' former military redneck. People who bomb abortion clinics do not have religious sanction. On the other hand, some of the radical greenies do have sanctions from their respective organizations. Take from that what you will.

I do not have a solution for finding radical Muslims intent on our destruction. I'd really rather not go down the Japanese interment road we traversed as a nation in WWII - regardless of Michelle Malkin's defense of same. I do think all of us as gunnies need to look at the issue from this point - why do we find it so offensive when the antis lump us in with criminals and gang bangers when the subject of gun ownership comes up? We're responsible as a whole, and criminals are not - so taking our guns away is not logical. And yet, I find myself ready to toss the whole "religion" into a camp and throw away the key. I'd sure feel better if the "religion of peace" actually policed itself, and spent more time taking a stand against terrorism. But, the moderate leaders won't because they'll have fatwas called down upon them. Refreshing the tree of liberty seems to involve the blood more of innocents rather than tyrants lately. And that is what is pissing me off.

My Kinda Load

Is the kind where I don't have to unload or help unload - I'm kinda fat and lazy thataway. The heavier cranes are almost always rigged with two lines, so it is possible for them to unload and stand a tank straight from the trailer. If they only have one line rigged, the crew has to use straps to pick the tank (using the lift lugs built into the sides of the tank) from the trailer, set it on the ground, then stand it up on the ground. Or, as is more often the case - I'll set up my tractor next to the trailer, hook up to the side eye near the bottom, and "tail" the tank off. The crane gradually picks up one end, and me the other. When the tank is high enough, I start dropping it and moving "under" the other crane while it's operator starts moving to get "over" me. Putting the tank on the ground is an extra step that can have problems that using two cranes or one with two lines avoids.

My compadre's truck is nosed directly in line with the crane boom. If the tank is at an angle to the boom, the cables can twist and jump out of the sheaves on the crane, which would be a very, very bad thing. So, any dual line lifts by necessity are lined up with the boom. The outer line is the lighter line, so the operator wanted us to nose our trucks in - he could use his heavy block of sheaves to pick up the top and use his lighter line on the bottom of the tank.


Now the operator swings the tank to the side of the truck and trailer, allowing it to leave the drop zone.


The operator is now able to lift his main line and lower his lighter line.





Now he can continue dropping the lighter line, unhook it, and swing the tank into position within the containment walls with the other tanks on the left.

It was at this point I had to get back to work - unstrapping the tank I hauled, and getting my truck into position.

That tank is a 12'x30' - about 25k gallons, or in oilfield terms - a six hundred barrel tank. These tanks are for ag usage - a very heavy fertilizer blend. Regular FRP tanks wouldn't be strong enough - thus these are steel.

I've gone on in the past about how we manufacture and sell liquid storage vessels - but we don't always sell directly to the end user. There are several ag supply companies that peddle our tanks. They integrate our products into a complete solution for ag companies - something we do not do. We don't sell the plumbing, the containment walls, the field application equipment or anything else. Just large tanks. Not the plastic portable variety, nor the huge build in place kind, either.

So, these supply companies have negotiated a standard design - sized fittings and their placement, sight gauges, tie down lugs and so on for a reduced price from us. We of course will customize those basic designs. Sometimes it is a better deal for customers to buy from the resellers because of the other things they offer - they have complete setups available - so it's more convenient. One stop shopping, as it were. Plus, we stand by these tanks the same as any others - that is something I've heard from about all our customers - they are very happy about how we stand behind our product.

Have I said lately I do like my job?

Animal Mother

No, not that one.

Before you click on the video below, you need to know a few things. It's a very graphic clip of an elephant giving birth, so if yer squeamish about such things, don't watch. It's messy.

Doesn't bother me - I've certainly seen the same thing on a smaller scale right outside my back door back when Dad had cow-calf pairs.

What makes this unique is what happens after she drops her calf - watch it and see. Some say we anthropomorphize far too much - but if there ever was a picture of concern and worry, it would be this mother elephant when things don't go smoothly.



link

H/T Nunkle Kim

Oh Deary Dear

Okay, I'm pretty lame for posting cartoons and such lately. Been kinda busy, which is a good thing, and too pooped to pop. So, raiding the email inbox once again:



A flow chart for Hey Jude just in case the lyrics are just too confusing and need some definition to be grokked.

Found here




And now the inherently bizarre behavior of the average leftist becomes very, very clear.

Thanks to MoK!



And, just because this one sated the inner geek. Gotta conserve momentum!

Official Obama Pace Car

Just keep on printin' that money - we'll pay for everything thataway! See ya in the reeducation camps!

H/T Darin

I Knew It!

found here


Someone observed that cat.

Retail Value Furniture Grade 440 Stainless Frostwood Handle

If the title terms mean something to you, well, you are a Knife Show addict like me. More properly, it's the Cutlery Corner show, currently hosted by Sheila Travis, Todd Boone and most importantly - Tom O'Dell.

The show used to be on the Shop At Home channel, but I guess the Knife Show was too lowbrow for them - they {sniff} upgraded their content several years ago. So the show must go on - it's on DirecTv 227 and Dish 216 along with other classics such as Coin Country and Shop Erotic (with Miyoko Fujimori - rowrrrhhhh!!).

I literally was hooked for a while when The Poor Farm was on C-Band. The Knife Show had Tom and a guy named Rex - I've since forgotten his full name - who peddled the goods. Rex didn't have the southern accent, and he could skillfully twirl those 440 stainless swords, and both were hell on sheets of paper - to demonstrate the razor hand sharpened edges of the dangerous weapons (snork!). Some years ago, I tried googling him up, and IIRC (if I remember correctly) he passed away suddenly or something. I can't find anything about him now.

But, I digress. Tom is the star. The whole thing is a sales front for moving Frost Cutlery and other brands Jim Frost has accumulated over the years. The fantasy knives are cheaper and more crudely made than the equivalent United Cutlery styles - although they sell a lot of UC product on the show, too. For some time, the folders would be hawked as "Solingen steel," but I don't hear that much anymore. Most of the stuff is made from 420 or 440 stainless. Which is fine for display, but it makes for brittle and overly heavy practical swords. The folding knives are thicker and less tight than say, a Case knife. "You get what you pay for" applies here as well as anything else.

But, Tom is nothing if not entertaining. His descriptions are legendary - "biggens" for the larger swords and fixed blades, "furniture grade" for the sword stands, and the wildly optimistic "retail value" of the collection being offered. Knife dealers, get your orders in now, this one won't last and you'll miss out on a real money making opportunity.



link

That video pretty well encapsulated the Knife Show Experience. But, sometimes, Tom gets carried away:



link

Another example of Tom going above and beyond, if you can stand it (a kazoo, and he sings Happy Birthday to Jim Frost). Pure dee entertainment, if ya ask me.

Of course, no post about The Knife Show would be complete without mentioning Shawn Leflar. While he's no longer on the show, his contribution has been immortalized in perhaps one of the more famous YouTube clips out there:



link

Like I said, those swords are brittle. "Full tang construction" or not.

Probably the main selling point of these gems would be the fact that they are so cheap. A collector/hoarder/packrat can pick up a wide variety of patterns and styles for next to nothing compared to what it would cost to buy quality pieces - like Case. Even so, you still end up with a collection of nothing but cheap knives.

But, there has been many a night when insomnia rules that I've tuned in to the drawling sales pitch and been sent to LaLaLand in short order - if I can keep from laughing or getting into it.

Zombie Parents?

Zits has been running this series all week, and ended today. Thought y'all might like to see 'em. Braaaaains!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

One Letter Disproof of Global Warming Claims

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid. I like it. Instead of long, drawn and convoluted thought processes that lead us to a conclusion, I prefer the simple explanation. Once you start building your theory on many diverse assumptions - the more likely the theory is full of crap. Thus it is with "global warming." Oh, excuse me - that's "climate change" now that overall cooling has been observed.

Dr. Howard Hayden wrote a letter to the EPA recently. I've heard of him - he's into energy policy in a big way, and is unswayed by the rush to cut our own throats with restrictive and punitive energy policies that are based on ill defined science. The money quote from the letter:

It has been often said that the "science is settled" on the issue of CO2 and climate. Let me put this claim to rest with a simple one-letter proof that it is false.

The letter is s, the one that changes model into models. If the science were settled, there would be precisely one model, and it would be in agreement with measurements.

Alternatively, one may ask which one of the twenty-some models settled the science so that all the rest could be discarded along with the research funds that have kept those models alive.

We can take this further. Not a single climate model predicted the current cooling phase. If the science were settled, the model (singular) would have predicted it.

As "they" say, read the whole thing. Dr. Hayden writes in a clear, easy to understand, and devastating manner. Devastating if you believe Al Gore, that is, and are capable of logic rather than faith in a destructive earth centric religion. Dr. Hayden blows the "tipping point" argument right out as well.

But, it's difficult to argue against a religion whose backers stand to make a bunch of money. Carbon tax - here we come!

Fencing On The Prairie

One of the curriculum requirements for schools in Kansas would naturally be state history. We were taught quite a bit about the past locally - and it was something I enjoyed. We learned how a lot of things all had to come together for civilization to come to the prairie. The buffalo - whether by design or accident - were eliminated, as well as any Indian presence. Early settlers arrived by Conestoga wagons, but followers came by train. Railroads were instrumental in bringing necessary goods to the area at a cost people could bear.

One of the building blocks that was missing was - building blocks. Western Kansas did have a few trees, but the construction of the early Army posts wiped out the sparse tree population. We've all heard about how people lived in dugouts and sod houses - that's all there was. Freighting in the necessary wood to build a home was strictly for the rich, and traditional wood fences were right out as well. I'm sure most of us have heard of the prairie campfire fuel - buffalo chips. That worked, but you couldn't build anything with a bunch of dried up buffalo turds.


Split rail fence - just like Honest Abe used to chop. The first cattlemen didn't worry about fencing - they ran open range. That required honest neighbors and cooperation, plus it pretty well eliminated any farming, because there was no way to keep the cattle out of the crops.



But, the invention of barbed wire and it's gradual adoption as fencing material also helped settle the west. Even so, the wire still needed some sort of post for support. Here's one of the local solutions:


That's post rock, which amazingly enough, has a museum devoted to the subject in LaCrosse KS. Early settlers discovered there was a layer of limestone beneath the surface - the first quarries were near a creek or river where erosion had exposed the layer. Some were just hammered out, some were cut with a drill and wedge arrangement, and during the winter, holes properly drilled filled with water were left overnight to freeze so the next day - voila - fresh post rocks! Blocks of this same limestone were also used in building construction - you can see many old abandoned farm outbuildings and houses, plus some downtowns have old commercial buildings still in use.

But, that solution was area specific - from where I live, the post rock phenomena is mostly north and east of The Poor Farm. Even though some of these things are still being used for fences, it took a lot of labor to cut, haul, and plant the unwieldy rocks in the days of horses and wagons. The fence building technique also required some sort of wooden post to help support the wire between the behemoths.


Locally, this is called a hedge apple tree, but it's more widely known as osage-orange. The trees don't get very tall, the trunks and branches are twisted and crooked, so the wood is unsuitable for boards or much of anything else.


But, you can get some chunks long enough - if you can live with all the twists and curves - to make a fence post.


A hedge apple. The wood is very hard yet slightly flexible, and one of it's endearing qualities is rot resistance when buried in a post hole. My grandfather used a ton of these things on our pasture fence, and some of them are still out there sixty years later. Plus, if you want to drive a staple in one, finding an old hole or a suitable split is a good idea because driving a "steeple" in a hedge post is a daunting task. If we got enough of one partly in and the thing folded over, but still held the wire, we figured it was good. Otherwise, you just destroyed the staple. That wood is hard, I tell ya.

Now people buy creosote soaked wood or metal posts that are straight and true. It still costs a ton of dollars to build a new fence, but compared to what our forefathers had to deal with - it's pretty cheap.

So, if you're ever driving through this area, and see a fence with rock posts, or an old bank or courthouse built of limestone rocks, you'll be seeing history. And, if you see some old fence made from odd, twisted knotty posts, you'll know why.